As you may have heard, US Border Patrol is suspected to be in Raleigh today (11/18/2025) with the potential for a presence in Durham and surrounding counties as well. Therefore we want to get prepared in case they do come to town. This provides information on how we are building a Watts Care and Protection Team, in coordination with efforts like Public School Strong and others for this week and potentially beyond.
From tomorrow (Wed. Nov 18) to Friday (Nov 20), we will form welcome committees at drop off from 7-8am.
This will look like gathering near the front of the school, holding signs, leading chants and songs, verifying potential ICE sightings at schools, and collecting support request forms from other parents.
There are two ways to get more involved:
We are starting a Watts-specific signal thread to be in immediate relationship with each other and coordinate the welcome committee and ongoing efforts as needed (like making sure families' needs are met for the longer term).
There is a Public School Strong form to sign-up for School based care and protection teams which will work across Durham’s schools.
If you’d like to be in be added to either, please fill out the form and a PTA member will reach out: https://forms.gle/GS1mGJpagTHc3z5N6
Additional resources and organizations in this moment:
We encourage you to follow Siembra NC for other ways to plug in and support efforts across the Triangle.
This is a resource guide from parents in Chicago about how they kept their kids, parents, teachers, and schools safe--it is a strong resource with links on how to talk to your kids about ICE and this moment.
If you want to get more plugged into Durham Public School Strong, Durham for All, and other allied community organizers, you can reach out to them at publicschoolstrongdurham@gmail.com or info@durhamforall.org with any questions.